For Abington chapter, TOPS Program is a way of life

Sunday

Feb 4, 2018 at 6:55 AM

TOPS – Take Off Pounds Sensibly – began with a woman, a kitchen, and a bathroom scale and the Wisconsin-based nonprofit has expanded across the United States and into Canada. According to the nonprofit’s website, TOPS has more than 125,000 members.

By Carolyn Bick / Enterprise Correspondent

ABINGTON - Without TOPS in her life, Lorraine Lewis would probably be a good 100 pounds heavier. But to Lewis and the rest of the organization’s Abington chapter, it’s more than just a weight loss program.

“TOPS is just a way of life. You know what to do, on this day, every week,” Lewis said. “And it’s just group therapy. We can say anything here, and it’s going to stay here. Some of my best friends are in TOPS, or have been in TOPS.”

Lewis and her daughter, Abington chapter head Gail Lewis, joined TOPS – Take Off Pounds Sensibly – 46 years ago. Though it began with a woman, a kitchen, and a bathroom scale, the Wisconsin-based nonprofit has since expanded across the United States and into Canada. According to the nonprofit’s website, TOPS has more than 125,000 members.

The goal of the group, Gail Lewis said, is to make weight loss affordable and sane for everyone. It doesn’t restrict what members can eat, and dues are $32 per year. Area chapters may add their own dues, if they wish, to cover overhead, like rent. The Abington chapter charges its members $4 per month, but it also has its own “penalty” system, charging members $0.25 for every pound or partial pound they gain week to week.

“It isn’t meant to be a bad thing,” Gail Lewis said. “It’s meant to be more of an incentive to keep off the weight.”

The organization is supposed to encourage a healthy lifestyle that allows for flexibility, Gail Lewis said. Lewis said she has left TOPS in the past, and tried other groups and diets in the past, but it just wasn’t the same. Most of the other groups and diets she tried banned certain foods or even entire food groups, while pushing their own branded products, on top of higher member fees.

While TOPS has recipes for members, Lewis said members may also create recipes to share with one another, and there isn’t a specific brand of food it pushes. According to the TOPS website, the nonprofit’s eating system is based on a food exchange system, developed by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and American Diabetes Association.

“You can experiment and eat the things that are right for you,” Lewis said. “You have to live in this world, and, sooner or later, you’re going to be going back to carbs and things, and you are going to be re-introducing this stuff back into your system. And how good is it to deprive yourself? I never wanted to feel deprived.”

While Lorraine Lewis is currently part of Keep Off Pounds Sensibly (KOPS) – meaning she is at her goal weight, and has successfully kept off the weight she has lost – Gail Lewis is not. But that doesn’t mean Gail Lewis is discouraged, because, like her mother said, “life happens.” She’s lost the weight before, and she will do it again.

Abington chapter member Jan Murphy knows what this is like. Murphy joined in 2003 and has lost 60 pounds, which she has kept off, “but I lost more than that.”

“I had seven months that I had three major surgeries, and I just couldn’t handle everything … with the medications and everything, and (TOPS does) allow for that,” Murphy said. “But it just got to the point where I knew I needed to go back to square one, and start over again for myself.”

Murphy said the main reason she comes back to the group is for the accountability and the support.

“We get a lot of love from each other, too, which is important, when you are trying to lose weight,” Murphy said.